Rufus Lenoir Patterson was an American inventor and developer of tobacco manufacturing machinery.
Background
Rufus Lenoir Patterson was born on June 11, 1872 in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. He was the fourth of six children, all sons, of Rufus Lenoir Patterson, a merchant, his second wife, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Fries, pioneer Southern industrialist. The Patterson forebears were Scotch-Irish, the Fries, German. The elder Patterson, maintaining the family code of leadership, served as mayor of Salem and as a member of various statewide public bodies. As a child young Rufus was exposed to the distinctive customs and beliefs of the Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Church, in whose councils his mother's family had been prominent for generations and which his father eventually joined.
Education
Rufus Lenoir Patterson attended the Moravian Boys' School, completed the Winston graded schools, worked for a season with camping and survey parties of the Roanoke and Southern Railroad, and then in 1889 enrolled in the University of North Carolina. In 1935 The University of North Carolina awarded him the honorary LL. D. degree.
Career
In 1890 Rufus Lenoir Patterson ended his formal education for a "fine opening" in the bleachery of a textile firm in Concord, North Carolina. By the spring of 1891 he was working closely with one of the managers, William H. Kerr, inventor of a machine which made muslin bags of various sizes, including the small sacks used in the packaging of granulated smoking tobacco. Wearied by his twelve-hour workday, the usually gay youth in 1892 eagerly accepted an opportunity to accompany the Kerr machines to England, where they were offered to British manufacturers. He squeezed his way into Westminster Abbey for Tennyson's funeral, which was "simply grand, " visited art galleries, attended theatres and musical gardens, and acquired lifelong friends. At the same time he thoughtfully observed British machine design, agonized over his own future, and made solemn resolve to be a success in business. Soon after his return in 1893, he settled in Durham, North Carolina, to work with the man who had subsidized Kerr's invention, Julian S. Carr, master of the Blackwell factory, where famed Bull Durham tobacco was produced.
In the winter of 1894 - 1895 Carr and Patterson negotiated with Kerr for the creation of a new machine, one which would weigh, pack, stamp, and label smoking tobacco. The contract acknowledged that such a device had been "mentally conceived" by Kerr, who engaged himself to construct the machine, which would then be promoted by Carr and Patterson. Kerr drowned in June 1895, and the dismayed Patterson of necessity had to complete what Kerr had begun. The patent for the machine which became known as the Patterson Packer was issued March 23, 1897, and assigned to the Automatic Packing and Labeling Company, Durham, of which Patterson was president. Despite business pressures, he found time for a lively round of social activities and effected a notable alliance.
Before the end of 1897 James B. Duke, creator of the powerful American Tobacco Company, visited the Patterson operations, commended the youthful engineer, and in 1898 hired two-thirds of his time for $7, 500 per year. Patterson, a man of personal charm as well as mechanical ingenuity, was accepted as Duke's close ally and received rapid promotions, becoming a vice-president of the American Tobacco Company in 1901. His energies were soon absorbed in the operation of subsidiary corporations, the most important being the American Machine and Foundry Company, of which he was principal founder and president. These companies designed and manufactured cheroot-rolling machines, mechanical tobacco stemmers, cigarette-manufacturing machines, variations of the Patterson Packer, and other equipment for the tobacco trade.
Patterson remained high in the councils of the combination, and had the uncomfortable distinction of being named, along with Duke, as one of the twenty-nine individual defendants in the epochal antitrust case, United States v. American Tobacco Company. In the unscrambling of the industry which followed the verdict of 1911, the American Machine and Foundry Company, which Patterson still headed, became independent of the old alliances and achieved a conspicuous prosperity. Patterson was probably more responsible for the mechanization of the tobacco industry than any other individual. His greatest engineering triumph was the perfection, about 1918, of a machine which produced high-quality long-filler cigars, previously the product of hand labor. Under his guidance the American Machine and Foundry Company and its subsidiaries became the world's largest suppliers of equipment for the tobacco industry, and expanded into baking, apparel manufacturing, and other fields.
Rufus Lenoir Patterson served as president of the parent company continuously from 1900, the time of its incorporation, to 1941, then as chairman of the board until his death. By 1935 he was among the eight highest-paid executives in the United States, reportedly earning $197, 000 per year. With affluence Patterson enjoyed a clubman's life in New York City and established a notable home, Lenoir, in Southampton, Long Island. He died at his home in New York City on April 11, 1943 and was buried in the family plot at Southampton Cemetery.
Achievements
Rufus Lenoir Patterson was the developer of tobacco manufacturing machinery, which was called the Patterson Packer. He organized the American Machine and Foundry Company, a subsidiary of the American Tobacco Company, then established two other corporations, the International Cigar Machinery Company and the Standard Tobacco Stemmer Company (1901).
Interests
Rufus Lenoir Patterson was keen on horticulture (especially orchids), horses, Republican politics.
Connections
On November 21, 1895, Rufus Lenoir Patterson married Margaret Morehead, granddaughter of Gov. John Motley Morehead. They had two children: a son, (Eugene) Morehead Patterson, who had succeeded to the presidency of the American Machine and Foundry Company in 1941, and a daughter, Lucy Lathrop (Patterson) de Rham.
